More Travels and a Church

Queridos hermanos,

Tomorrow morning I fly to Salta, Argentina to get the final 30 days on my visa. I´ve been illegal for the last week or so, and will be illegal for just short of 2 weeks when I hopefully get my new visa. I´m flying by myself to a country I´ve never been to, which is a bit unnerving. Pray for confidence, and God´s protection as I spend Monday thru Thursday away from Cochabamba.

The last few days have been stressful, and I´ve struggled to trust that God would provide a good way for me to get my last visa. Yesterday, I was overwhelmed by His goodness. When I went to check on cheap flights out of the country, the agent told me the cheapest flight was to Salta, Argentina. Just last week, during a special week of celebration in our church, we had a visiting pastor, Pastor Rolando, stay at the church all week, who was from Salta, Argentina. One of the first things he said to me when I first met him was that I had a place to stay with him if I was ever in Salta!! How good is our God?!!

I have yet to get ahold of him, so I´d also appreciate your prayers that I would be able to contact him before I leave early tomorrow morning.

A special service last week at my church
(Carlos on piano (L), Wilber in the middle, and Pastor Rolando on the right)

Aside from visas, I continue to be overwhelmingly blessed by God´s intentional care for me. As I mentioned in my recent e-mail, my home church here has filled me to overflowing with incredible community. Here´s a little peek into what my church is like:

-Quechua older men and women
-a thriving young people´s group my age
-cute little kids running all over the place

People in the congregation at my church

Those who got baptized when I went with my church a month ago
(Rosalia is the girl on the left in the back)

I went to a devotional Thursday night at my church, and when I arrived early, Vicenta (a dear friend, mother of my friend Rosalia, and housekeeper at the Frutillar orphanage) came in and asked me to sing songs in Quechua with her out of her Quechua hymnal. Vicenta also makes sure that someone always takes me all the way home after church, since I have to walk through a dark forrest to get to my house.

Rosalia (pictured above) lives at the Frutillar orphanage, as the daughter of Vicenta, the housekeeper. I began a friendship with her two years ago, but she´s now 13, and we´re able to have much more of a relationship now that she´s a part of the jovenes (young people) group at church. It was powerful to listen to her share about her faith to the whole congregation before she was baptized. Her faith is vibrant, especially for a 13-year-old, and we often get to pray together, sing worship together, and spend time together. Keep praying for my mentorship of Rosalia, especially as she enters into rebellious years, and without a father.

Thank you, my dear friends, for your continued love and support. I feel daily blessed by the community that I never really left behind when I came here.

con todo amor,
Kati

Missions trip on a missions trip...

Flat tires, bad brakes, and a shifter that won’t stay in gear… Winding 4X4 roads with steep cliffs, breathtaking views of canyons, desolate and arid land, and herds of llamas, donkeys and sheep wandering across the road… Arriving in villages at midnight, getting up at 6am, no showers, beautiful indigenous people… Quechua, English, Spanish, Aymara… All I’m capable of sharing with you is just snippets of what I experienced during my time in Potosi, but I hope you’re able to get a glimpse of how powerful the trip was. As a quick re-cap, I went on a 9 day mission’s trip to Potosi with 3 other interns and 5 Bolivians. Potosi is a southern department in Bolivia, known for its mountains, remote villages, mines, and Quechua-speaking people. We went to 7 villages, sharing the gospel, giving the kiddos a little hygienic education, and distributing Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes.


As you can see from this picture, these precious wawas were thrilled to get a gift from so far away. As one dad shared, some of the kids had never been given presents before. Before we gave them their boxes, we talked about how the shoeboxes were an example of God’s love for them, and how the best gift He ever gave was the gift of His Son. In each village, I was able to offer a Quechua greeting or a question to the weathered old men and women, and was rewarded with a toothless smile. In a Quechua church in Urmiri, the third village, I was asked on the spot to share my testimony. When I got on stage, the translator joked in Quechua that I was fluent, and he didn’t need to translate. I said, “Mana parlanichu” (I don’t speak Quechua!) but was able to use a little Quechua at the beginning. It was a powerful experience to share my story in Spanish and to hear it translated into Quechua. I talked about my connection to God through nature, and then shared Psalm 23. What a beautiful thing to share a passage from scripture about God as our Shepherd to an audience full of shepherds! One of my main roles on the team was to share John 3:16 with the 10-14 year-olds in the village when we broke up into groups. For most of the villages, Jen, another intern was in there for moral support, but she doesn’t speak much Spanish.

In Macha Macha, the last village, 30-40 Quechua kids all crowded into a dim room and looked at me expectantly. I didn’t have any of the teaching tools I was used to in the other villages, and I was all by myself. As I read, “Porque tanto amo Dios al mundo…” I learned that most of these kids had never heard the gospel before, and that many of them didn’t even have a clear picture of who God is or what Jesus did.

There’s no way to put into words how beautiful it was to stare into the eager brown eyes of these beautiful Quechua children and to share with them from the bottom of my heart what it means to have a rich relationship with Christ. We went through each part of the verse, and I explained what each part meant, and what it could mean to them. They soaked it all in, and when we were done and left the classroom, the kids flocked around me, all smiles. I have no idea if they understood all I said, but I can only continued to pray that God will draw each of them to Him, and that some day each of those kids will be able to experience the overwhelming richness of a relationship with Him.

Our journey felt like one of Paul’s trips in many ways, with major car troubles, persecution and division, but so much truth and beauty shared about God and His love for us. Check out 2 Corinthians for a taste of some of what we experienced.

Pray for the seeds planted, and for the body of Christ in each village. May God be as real and present for each of you as He was for us on this trip.

Dios llawan,
Kata

more political updates

Queridos amigos,

YAY!! Good news! I´m back safely from Chile with at least 30 more days of legality, and a possible hope of 60 more if I talk to immigration. Chile was incredible, and I learned a lot more about South America thru my trip cross-country. Hopefully soon I can post pictures of the glacial peaks, alpine lakes, and flamingos. Yep! Flamingos at the border at a whopping 12,000+ feet! So much to tell.

For now, I wanted to let you know a few things to be praying about for the next few weeks. Tomorrow, I leave again to go on a short mission trip (27th of Sept thru 5th of Oct) to Potosí, a southern department in Bolivia. It´s up in the mountains, very remote, and has a large concentration of Quechua indigenous people. We´ll work with kiddos, and won´t take a shower for the whole 9 days:) Sounds like my kind of trip! Pray for safety on the roads, and that we will be able to express the beauty of relationship with Christ with the people in the villages we go to.

Here´s another update from our team leader about the current political situation:

"I'll share some of the highlights. The opposition governors continue to meet here in Cochabamba. Evo was supposed to meet with them yesterday but didn’t; he said today he would. He was in New York Wednesday to speak at the UN and also with the the South American Association of Leaders. The meeting yesterday should have ended with separate documents that he had drafted to encourage the governors to sign his constitutional amendments and a document the governors were drafting in hopes of Evo supporting more autonomy for the provinces. Some notable events:

Evo has asked that the Constitutional Vote be moved up from Dec 7 to Oct 15 (14?) side note: this vote is a big deal, and things could turn sour...

Governor Fernandez of the Pando province was released / moved to Sucre pending more investigation of his involvement in the violence last week.

Camposinos (Evo supporters) marched into Santa Cruz (Autonomy supporters)Wednesday as a show of support for Evo. Although it was peaceful the estimated 300,000 people were intimidating and could still turn violent should the wrong things be said at today's meeting with Evo and opposition governors here in Coch.

Life here continues to be very normal. There are no road blocks, no shortages."

Our God is faithful!
Katie

I´m still safe!

Friends,

Things in Cochabamba continue to be fairly calm, although there is still a lot of instability in the rest of the country. I found out Tuesday that I will be unable to get the kind of visa I was hoping for, but we´re working on plans now for me to travel out of the country soon in hopes that I can piece together another 60 days of visa. I´ll keep you posted, but keep praying!

Below is a summary of the current political situation, written by my team leader here in Bolivia. Hope it helps to ease hearts, as well as inform:)


"I’d like to share a political update with you on our situation here in Bolivia. As
many of you know President Evo is a member of the MAS party (Movement Towards Socialism) and over the past 2 ½ years he has definitely made his party proud. He is attempting to re-write the constitution; however, five of the nine governors oppose Evo’s anti-western policies and his movement away from democracy. The proposed constitution will be voted on Dec 7; however, four of the nine provinces have voted for more autonomy from the central government while five are in support of more power in the hands of the president. The climate is especially hostile because the law requires all constitutional changes to be approved with a 2/3 vote and Evo decided the changes can be made with a simple majority and only the final vote needs to have 2/3.

This past week things escalated when the province of Pando had opposing demonstrators clash and thirty people were killed as Evo declared martial law and the military was called in. The same day the US ambassador was meeting with the Santa Cruz governor; Evo’s biggest opponent, and Evo accused them of inciting un-rest and expelled the US ambassador. The US replied by expelling the Bolivian ambassador, President Chaves of Venezuala then expelled his US ambassador to demonstrate support for Evo and the US expelled the Venezuala ambassador. The following day Evo announced he could no longer guarantee the safety of US Drug Enforcement Agents in his country and the US moved Bolivia to the black list of countries who are no longer helping in the war on drugs. Yesterday, the US pulled out all non-emergency government personal including all Peace Corp members."

Thanks for your continued prayers. I am daily blessed by the support and encouragement from the body of Christ.

Dios llawankichej,
Kati

New Mailing Info

Hermanos y Hermanas,

Just a quick note to let you know that my mailing info has changed. The Spies (the Australian couple that we work with) are going back to Australia on furlough in a month. They will no longer be able to pick up my mail, and any mail addressed to them would be stuck at the post office until after I leave. Here is my new address, starting today:

Matt and Elsa Johnson
for Katie Stewart
Casilla 376
Cochabamba, Bolivia

Thank you so much for all the packages, letters, and notes that you´ve sent over the past few months. I feel overwhelmed by the amount of love that God has poured out on me through all of you. Just a quick reminder, if you plan to send a package (which I would love!), just make sure it´s under 2 kilos (I think that translates into roughly 4 and a half pounds), otherwise I have to pay significant taxes and wait in Bolivian lines. Ugh.

Below is a link to an album of pictures I´ve put together from August. Towards the end, there are lots of pictures of the kiddos at both orphanages... Enjoy!

Hermana Cati


BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

Elian

Friends,

Each time I sit down to write, I find I don´t have the right words to describe all the rich fullness that my heart holds. Life in Bolivia is always such a bittersweet mix of beauty and pain. This picture below of me and Elian captures just a bit of how I usually feel when I´m with the kiddos. The niños have been by far the biggest blessing of my time in Coch. I feel full to overflowing with love for these precious, lindo niños, and it is such a joy each day to share a smile with them, to hold them close, and to tell them of Christ´s incredible love for them.


Elian has weaseled his way deep into my heart. Maybe it's just the shared joy of Quechua, but I suspect it´s this smile you see in the picture... or maybe the shy way he slips his hand in mine, or calls "Cati" to show me something he´s proud of, or the way he comes running, cuaderno in hand, whenever I arrive, to beg for "astawa tarea"(more homework). He´s such an eager learner, and often steals away from the rest of the group to pull out a pencil and practice his letters in his cuaderno.

We took the Villa Israel kids to the movies this week and bought them all popcorn and a drink. When Elian saw I didn´t have any, he leaned over with a fistful of popcorn to plop it into my hand. Every time I finished my handful, he´d tug on my sleeve, saying,"Cati, ¡más!" His heart is in tune with the needs of those around him, and his sweet little Quechua voice is enough to melt anyone!


The flip side of Elian´s beauty is the continued brokenness of his story. I learned a few days ago that they now think that Elian´s dad murdered his mother. I have no idea whether Elian was present for that or not, but I can´t help but ache at the holes that it tore in his life. His father is an alcoholic and is unable to care for any of his children, which means that Elian and Franz are only two of many children in the family and have been separated from the rest of their siblings.

Another torn part of Elian´s story is his identity as a Quechua. In Bolivia, to be from the campo (the countryside) is a deeply shameful thing, and it´s even more shameful to be a Quechua and to speak the language. Elian´s new brothers and sisters are struggling to accept him with this identity. I´ve had several conversations with other kids at Villa Israel about their "new brother" Elian, and several times, I´ve gotten the disdainful response, "He´s not my brother, he´s a campesino". They make fun of his rotting teeth (often a sign of poverty or neglect here in Bolivia) and tell him to stop speaking in Quechua. Whenever I try to talk to him in Quechua, they tell me that he no longer speaks Quechua (he obviously does, as he still struggles to get a few phrases out in español), and tell me he needs to forget his Quechua and his heritage. It breaks my heart that a little boy with such a beautiful language and indigenous identity is being forced to forget all that defines him and his past.


Please continue to keep all the kids at Villa Israel in your prayers, and the interns as well as we struggle to have wisdom for all the situations we face as we try to grow with them. Pray that the impartial love of Christ would be growing in each of their little hearts, and that God would show us how to be an example of this love for them.


Thanks for reading,
Cati


P.S. For those of you who are wondering, August 10th passed without much fanfare... Evo was re-elected and the prefect (governor)of Cochabamba was voted out, but refuses to leave. We may continue to see some interesting political dynamics, but it seems as though things are returning to normal in Coch.


P.P.S. Here´s a video of Villa Israel that my friend Adrian put together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNMHmmSaYdM